Britain’s Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Singapore’s Hong Leong Group (豐隆集團) have announced plans to invest in Taiwan’s hotel industry.
IHG last week signed deals to open hotels in Xiamen, China, Hong Kong and Taipei, adding more than 700 rooms to its Asia-Pacific portfolio.
TAIPEI EXPANSION
Its Holiday Inn Express brand will be the banner establishment for a 170-room Taipei development that will open next year, while a 300-room property in Mongkok in Hong Kong is set to be unveiled in 2013, the -Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Its boutique brand, Indigo, will open branches in two locations next year, including a 125-room hotel in Taipei and another 127-room establishment in Xiamen, China.
The Taiwanese expansion is part of a plan by IHG, the world’s biggest hotel group by number of rooms, to increase its presence in its Greater China portfolio, which includes markets in China, Mongolia and Taiwan.
HONG LEONG
Meanwhile, Hong Leong — a conglomerate with businesses spanning hotel management, financial services and real estate — said it would invest in three hotels in Taipei and Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in Nantou County, with the first deal expected to be signed by next month. With partners MarkWell Group (午陽企業集團), its first hotel project in Taiwan will be launched in the fourth quarter next year, it said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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